It's not long until we see her in action as Bill Potts in Doctor Who, and Pearl Mackie is marking less-than-one-week until the premier of series 10 by spilling why she thinks the show is so successful.

And one of the reasons she thinks the series keeps bringing fans back year after year is in large part due to the companions and the feelings they generate within the Doctor.

"I know not everyone is going to love Bill, and why should they?" she continued. "But I do, and hopefully there won't be too much unpleasant stuff. If there is, I just won't listen to it."

But mostly, Mackie seems pretty happy to be representing minorities on screen, detailing that it's something she noticed a lack of when she was growing up.

"When Alicia Keys came out that was a big thing for me because she was mixed race as well," she said. "There were a lot of people I liked on screen, like Judi Dench, she's wicked, but that's very different to having someone where you think, 'She looks like me, maybe I could do that.'"

"She's a very clever, bright and funny girl, and I think the Doctor's very taken with her, because he can see that she's one of these people who life hasn't been great to, and she didn't deserve life not to be kind to her," Peter Capaldi said.